# Joseph Edkins > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Joseph_Edkins > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Joseph_Edkins.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Edkins > Source revision: 1351008644 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) British missionary and linguist (1823–1905) This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this article. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Joseph Edkins" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Joseph Edkins Missionary to China Born (1823-12-19)19 December 1823 Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England Died 23 April 1905(1905-04-23) (aged 81) Shanghai, Qing China Education University of London Spouse(s) Jane Rowbotham Edkins (née Stobbs) Chinese name Chinese 艾約瑟 Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Ài Yuēsè **Joseph Edkins** (19 December 1823 – 23 April 1905) was a British [Protestant](/source/Protestant) [missionary](/source/Missionary) who spent 57 years in China, 30 of them in Beijing. As a [Sinologue](/source/Sinologue), he specialised in Chinese religions. He was also a [linguist](/source/Linguistics), a translator, and a [philologist](/source/Philologist). Writing prolifically,[1] he penned many books about the Chinese language and the Chinese religions especially [Buddhism](/source/Buddhism). In his *China's Place in Philology* (1871), he tries to show that the languages of Europe and Asia have a common origin by comparing the Chinese and [Indo-European](/source/Indo-European_languages) vocabulary. ## Life Born at [Nailsworth](/source/Nailsworth), Gloucestershire,[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] he was trained at [Coward College](/source/Coward_College), a [dissenting academy](/source/Dissenting_academies) that trained people for [nonconformist](/source/Nonconformist_(Protestantism)) ministry[2] and graduated from the [University of London](/source/University_of_London) in 1843. He was ordained on 8 December 1847. Sent by the [London Missionary Society](/source/London_Missionary_Society), he arrived in China on 22 July 1848 at Hong Kong, and reached Shanghai on 2 September. First he worked in the London Missionary Society Press in Shanghai under [Walter Henry Medhurst](/source/Walter_Henry_Medhurst). From 1852 to 1858 he edited the Chinese annual *Chinese and Foreign Concord Almanach* (華洋和合通書), later known as the *Chinese and Western Almanac* (中西通書). During this period of time, he collaborated with [Li Shanlan](/source/Li_Shanlan), [Wang Tao](/source/Wang_Tao_(19th_century)) and others to translate many Western scientific works into Chinese. Besides this, he was involved in Bible translation and an active member of the North China Branch of the [Royal Asiatic Society](/source/Royal_Asiatic_Society). In the 1850s he travelled extensively in the Shanghai and [Ningbo](/source/Ningbo) regions. He also was involved in direct evangelism, and accompanied [Hudson Taylor](/source/Hudson_Taylor) on some of his first canal-boat travels in China, distributing portions of Scripture and Christian tracts. In March 1858 he left for England. When he returned, he brought his Scottish bride, Jane Rowbotham Stobbs. They were married on 7 February 1859. They settled in Shanghai on 14 September the same year. During his years in Shanghai, in July 1860 he visited the [Taiping Rebellion](/source/Taiping_Rebellion) leaders at [Suzhou](/source/Suzhou%2C_Jiangsu), Jiangsu. He made several contacts with the leaders of the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" in an effort to determine the precise beliefs of this movement. In late March 1861 he spent eleven days in Taiping-held [Nanjing](/source/Nanjing). In 1860 the Edkins family moved to [Yantai](/source/Yantai), Shandong, and in 1861 to [Tianjin](/source/Tianjin). His wife died before 1863 at the age of 22. Edkins remarried, to Janet Wood White, that year. In May 1863 he settled in Beijing. In 1872, he collaborated with [William A P Martin](/source/William_Alexander_Parsons_Martin) to publish the Chinese magazine *Peking Magazine* (中西聞見錄). The magazine ran for 36 issues, terminating in 1875. In 1873, he travelled alone to England via the United States, and returned to Beijing in 1876. In 1880 he resigned from the London Missionary Society to become a translator for the [Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs](/source/Chinese_Imperial_Maritime_Customs). He was widowed a second time in 1877 and married Johanna Schmidt in 1881. He was appointed by the Customs head to edit and translate a series of Western scientific works into Chinese, and the fruits were the *16 Primers for Western Knowledge* (西學啟蒙十六種) published in 1898, which comprised textbooks about zoology, botany, chemistry, geography, physiology, logic and other subjects. In 1903 he survived [typhoid](/source/Typhoid) and was still writing at the age of 81. He died in Shanghai on Easter Sunday, 1905. ## Works *Chinese Buddhism*, by Joseph Edkins, 1880 - Joseph Edkins (1853). [*A Grammar of Colloquial Chinese: as exhibited in the Shanghai dialect*](https://books.google.com/books?id=ajxMAAAAYAAJ). Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press. - Joseph Edkins (1857). *A grammar of the Chinese colloquial language commonly called the Mandarin dialect*. Shanghai: Presbyterian mission press.; Joseph Edkins (1864). [*A grammar of the Chinese colloquial language commonly called the Mandarin dialect*](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Ka0yXAH5vowC) (2 ed.). Shanghai: Presbyterian mission press. - Joseph Edkins (1864). [*Progressive lessons in the Chinese spoken language: with lists of common words and phrases, and an appendix containing the laws of tones in the Peking dialect ...*](https://books.google.com/books?id=6KxDAAAAIAAJ) (2 ed.). Shanghai: Presbyterian mission press. p. 103. - Joseph Edkins (1869). [*A vocabulary of the Shanghai dialect*](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8II-AQAAIAAJ). Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press. - Joseph Edkins. *The Miau-tsi Tribes*. Foochow: Rozario, Marcal and Co. - Joseph Edkins (1871). [*China's place in philology: an attempt to show that the languages of Europe and Asia have a common origin*](https://books.google.com/books?id=6OtwizkhGzEC). Adegi Graphics LLC. p. 435. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-4021-8104-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4021-8104-7). {{[cite book](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_book)}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility ([help](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:CS1_errors#invalid_isbn_date)) - Joseph Edkins (1876). [*Introduction to the study of the Chinese characters*](https://books.google.com/books?id=_YdBAAAAYAAJ). Hertford: Trübner & co. p. 314. - Joseph Edkins (1876). [*A catalogue of chinese works in the Bodleian library*](https://archive.org/details/cu31924023934833). Clarendon Press. - Joseph Edkins (1880). [*Chinese Buddhism: a Volume of Sketches, Historical, Descriptive, and Critical*](https://archive.org/details/chinesebuddhism00edkiuoft). London: Trübner & Company. - Joseph Edkins (1888). [*The evolution of the Chinese language: as exemplifying the origin and growth of human speech*](https://archive.org/details/evolutionchines00edkigoog). Trübner and Company. p. 99. - Joseph Edkins (1898). [*Opium: Historical Note; or The Poppy in China*](https://archive.org/details/opiumhistorical00edkigoog). Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press. Joseph Edkins. - Joseph Edkins (1901). [*Chinese currency*](https://archive.org/details/chinesecurrency00edkirich). Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press. pp. [151](https://archive.org/details/chinesecurrency00edkirich/page/151). - Joseph Edkins (1903). [*The revenue and taxation of the Chinese empire*](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PIcaAAAAMAAJ). Presbyterian Mission Press. pp. [240](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PIcaAAAAMAAJ/page/n247). - Joseph Edkins (1905). [*Banking and prices in China*](https://archive.org/details/bankingandprice02edkigoog). Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press. pp. [286](https://archive.org/details/bankingandprice02edkigoog/page/n298). ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** De Lacouperie, Terrien (1894). [*Western origin of the early Chinese civilisation from 2,300 B.C. to 200 A.D., or, Chapters on the elements derived from the old civilisations of west Asia in the formation of the ancient Chinese culture*](https://archive.org/stream/cu31924023505666/cu31924023505666_djvu.txt). London: Asher & Co. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Dixon, Simon N. (June 2011). ["Coward College (1833–1850)"](https://web.archive.org/web/20190204065758/https://dissacad.english.qmul.ac.uk/sample1.php?parameter=academyretrieve&alpha=40). *Dissenting Academies Online: Database and Encyclopedia*. Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies, Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature in English. Archived from [the original](https://dissacad.english.qmul.ac.uk/sample1.php?parameter=academyretrieve&alpha=40) on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019. ## External links - [Biographical sketch and list of his works](https://web.archive.org/web/20170604092640/http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/edkins/evi00028.htm), at EDKINS Surname Resource Centre - [Biographical sketch](https://web.archive.org/web/20110927091404/http://ricci.rt.usfca.edu/biography/view.aspx?biographyID=34), at the Ricci 21st Century Roundtable database - [His works published on Hong Kong journals](http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/index.jsp), at Hong Kong Journals Online (HKJO), many pieces, search for "Edkins" v t e Protestant missions to China Background Protestantism in China Protestantism in Sichuan Chinese history Missions timeline Christianity in China Nestorians Jesuits Protestant missions in China 1807–1953 People David Howard Adeney Mary Ann Aldersey Roland Allen Thomas J. Arnold Gladys Aylward Joseph Beech John Birch William Jones Boone Pearl S. Buck John Burdon Thomas Cochrane Hunter Corbett Jonathan Goforth Frederick Graves Karl Gützlaff Francis Hanson Laura Askew Haygood Elizabeth G. K. Hewat Jennie V. Hughes Robert A. Jaffray Carl C. Jeremiassen Griffith John Walter Judd James Legge Eric Liddell Robert Samuel Maclay Lottie Moon Robert Morrison George Moule Gideon Nye David Paton Karl Ludvig Reichelt Timothy Richard Issachar Jacox Roberts Charles Scott Cambridge Seven George Smith Vincent John Stanton John and Betty Stam John Leighton Stuart Elwood Gardner Tewksbury Hudson Taylor Thomas Torrance William C. White (more missionaries) Missionary agencies American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions American Methodist Episcopal Mission Canadian Methodist Mission China Inland Mission Church Mission Society London Missionary Society National Christian Council US Presbyterian Mission Protestant Episcopal Church Mission List of Protestant missionary societies in China (1807–1953) Colleges and universities United Board University of Shanghai Cheeloo University Ginling College University of Nanking Soochow University Yenching University St. John's University Hangchow University Fukien Christian University Lingnan University College of Yale-in-China Huachung University West China Union University Peking Union Medical College Methodist Episcopal Church Hwa Nan College English Presbyterian Mission Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association Reformed Church in the United States Impact Bible translations into Chinese Medical missions in China Manchurian revival Chinese Christian colleges Chinese hymnody Chinese Roman Type Minnan Roman Type Foochow Roman Type Anti-footbinding Anti-opium Pivotal events Taiping Rebellion First Opium War Second Opium War Unequal treaty Yangzhou riot Tianjin Massacre Kucheng Massacre Boxer Crisis 1911 Revolution Chinese Civil War Second Sino-Japanese War People's Republic Publications The Chinese Repository Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal The Christian Occupation of China Journal of the West China Border Research Society The West China Missionary News Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Japan Italy Czech Republic Netherlands Norway Vatican Israel Academics CiNii People Trove Deutsche Biographie DDB Other IdRef Open Library SNAC Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Joseph Edkins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Edkins) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Edkins?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.